
Are We Ready for Mpox
Are we ready for the next potential pandemic? It seems like we are just get over COVID and already we have to worry about the next one. We first covered the monkey pox (now mpox) in 2022. Since then it has continued to be a concern. Where do our efforts to contain this infection stand? To recap, the disease mpox is the...

More on Long COVID
It’s interesting to follow the scientific exploration of a new clinical entity in real time. It reveals a lot about how medical science works, and how scientists nibble away at complex problems. This is partly why I have been closely following the story of long COVID as it has unfolded over the last few years. I also see patients with long COVID...

Vaccines for Children Program Works
We have often stated here on SBM that vaccine programs are the most effective, and most cost-effective, public health measures in human history. They save lives, prevent disease, and save money. These benefits are all well researched and copiously documented. A recent CDC study adds to the literature on the benefits of vaccines and vaccine programs, focusing on the effects of the...

Acupuncture and Evidence Based Medicine
Over the last few decades there has been a steady infiltration of acupuncture into Western mainstream medicine. It is not unreasonable to conclude that acupuncture’s journey from an exotic Eastern practice to a fringe treatment to mainstream acceptance has been complete. Knowledgeable proponents of science based medicine (SBM) who remain skeptical of acupuncture now find themselves on the fringe. How did this...

The Evidence for Rehabilitation Robots
Rehabilitation robots, first introduced in the 1990s, are just what they sound like – robotics used to aid in regaining function through rehabilitation following an injury. The idea sounds compelling, and the technology has been advancing steadily. But still we have to ask ourselves the question – do they actually help, and what is the evidence? A recent comprehensive meta-analysis and systematic...

Science vs HIV
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a global pandemic, with 39 million cases worldwide, and over 1 million new infections each year. While it rose to epidemic and then pandemic levels in the 1980s, the first case goes back to 1959. HIV is a retrovirus that inserts its genetic material into the DNA of host cells, and targets the immune system as...

Microplastics and Global Health
What is a science-based medicine approach to potential public health risks? We write a lot about such risks here, trying to put them into perspective and cut through the hype and sensational headlines. We all have more than enough to worry about without adding unnecessarily to this burden. At the same time, humans have transformed our environment with industry, potentially introducing new...

Firearms as a Public Health Crisis
The US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, recently put out a 40 page report titled: “Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis in America.” The report is entirely informational, without any policy force, but Murthy is hoping it will have the same long term cultural effect as the Surgeon General’s warning about the health risks of tobacco. I wrote about this exact issue in...

The Decaf Wars
We can add decaffeinated (decaf) products to the list of things you probably shouldn’t worry about but someone wants to make you worry anyway. You may have read recently that some decaf coffee and tea brands have “chemicals” in them that may be a health risk. The real story, as you might imagine, is more complicated. The cause of the recent headlines...
Conspiracy Medicine
Was COVID cooked up in a lab? Do “they” have a cure for cancer and are hiding it from the public? Do pharmaceutical companies make up diseases to market otherwise failed drugs? Did insurance companies scheme with infectious disease professional organizations to suppress treatments for chronic Lyme disease? Did the supplement industry lobby congress to weaken regulations of their own products? OK,...